The New Mexico Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by the state’s Civil Rights Commission that a Christian photographer who refused to take pictures of a gay couple’s commitment ceremony violated the state’s discrimination law.

“Elane Photography may not discriminate in its commercial activities against protected classes as the basis for expressing its religious freedom,” Judge Tim Garcia wrote in a 45-page ruling.

The case dates back to 2006 when Vanessa Willock tried to hire Elane Photography for a “same-gender ceremony.” New Mexico law does not recognize either marriage or civil unions between persons of the same sex.

Elane Hugenin declined to accept the job and explained to Willock that because of their Christian beliefs the studio only handled “traditional weddings.”

In 2008 the New Mexico Human Rights Commission found Elane Photography guilty of “sexual orientation” discrimination. The studio is owned by a young Christian husband and wife who based their refusal on their religious beliefs.

The Court of Appeals determined that a photo studio is considered a public accommodation – much like a restaurant or a store. As such, the photo studio may not refuse services based on sexual orientation or gender identity – even if doing so would violate the religious principles of the owners.

“The owners of Elane Photography must accept the reasonable regulations and restrictions imposed upon the conduct of their commercial enterprise despite their personal religious beliefs that may conflict with these government interests,” Garcia wrote.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy group, represented the photography studio. They plan to appeal the ruling.

“Americans in the marketplace should not be subjected to legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs,” senior counsel Jordan Lorence said in a statement. “Because the Constitution prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to promote a message they disagree with, we will certainly appeal this decision to the New Mexico Supreme Court.”

But the court ruled that once a business offers a service publicly, they must do so “without impermissible exception.”

Elane Photography posed a hypothetical situation to support its argument – imaging what would happen if an African-American photographer refused to photograph a Ku-Klux-Klan rally because the photographer “wanted to refrain from using her photography to communicate a message that she finds deeply offensive.”

However, Judge Garcia said the argument fails as a matter of law.

“The Ku-Klux-Klan is not a protected class,” he wrote. “Sexual orientation, however, is protected.”

The court ruled that the Christian photography company must pay fines totaling nearly $7,000.

You can read the entire court decision by clicking here.

Todd is the author of “Dispatches From Bitter America.” The book is endorsed by Sarah Palin, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity. Click here to get your copy!

Bull shit. You know dam well if ShitSprayer was allowed to start threads like everyone else. The thread bumping would never have happened. Plus this is DC.
I would understand the ban if he was doing it in the Lounge, but not here in DC & under the stupid thread starting restriction placed upon him.
Totally unfair & it wrecked my endless hours of shitsprayer entertainment.

& ITS A PUSSY MOVE IMO

He has been banned repeatedly. I said I would never allow him back and relented. Never say never. He has a place here so I just ignore him. As far as disagreeing with the mods rulings, I say the same thing every time. Feel free to apply for the position. I'm done on the matter. Especially since I had nothing to do with it. Although, I do support his decision.

No, I understood it. That doesn't make it reasonable. Those bumps were purposeful and non-disruptive. There was no reason for a ban of any length.

Like I need to explain to you or anyone how he was protesting against his inability to create new threads by bumping tens of defunct threads from years gone by.

The way I see it, it was kind of like the days when he would push the envelope with his racism and personal attacks - he had to know what the ultimate payoff would be, BUT, that's part of his schtick. He knew it was coming sooner or later. Them's the rules.

If you or I were to do the same thing, either here, in the Media Center, or the lounge, we'd get the exact same treatment. Any of us would.

He has been banned repeatedly. I said I would never allow him back and relented. Never say never. He has a place here so I just ignore him. As far as disagreeing with the mods rulings, I say the same thing every time. Feel free to apply for the position. I'm done on the matter. Especially since I had nothing to do with it. Although, I do support his decision.

The pussy move comment I made, was meant to be directed at those that complain to Mods. It was not a shot at you or the Mod team. Just wanna make that clear

Like I need to explain to you or anyone how he was protesting against his inability to create new threads by bumping tens of defunct threads from years gone by.

The way I see it, it was kind of like the days when he would push the envelope with his racism and personal attacks - he had to know what the ultimate payoff would be, BUT, that's part of his schtick. He knew it was coming sooner or later. Them's the rules.

If you or I were to do the same thing, either here, in the Media Center, or the lounge, we'd get the exact same treatment. Any of us would.

You're thick headed. I told you why he was bumping threads. He had two legitimate reasons for bumping them. First, he was researching penchief posts because he and penchief had gotten into it. And second, since he isn't allowed to start new threads for whatever reason, he was posting new items in relevant old threads. He wasn't bumping threads and saying "bump" or "Peyton Manning!". He was bumping them for a purpose. You and I wouldn't get banned for that.

He only mentioned not being able to start threads when people accused him of randomly bumping threads, so the idea that he was doing it as a protest is kind of crazy. You're making assumptions because you don't know what was going on and because you apparently ignored my explanations. Unfortunately, this is what our mods do too. They don't bother to do investigate what's really going on, they just make assumptions and sometimes it leads them to bad decisions like this.

Why do these bumps bother you so much? No one held a gun to your head and forced you to stick around and keep them going. It makes it seem like your cheerleading for this ban is more about the person than the rule.

__________________

“The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they’re not.” - Hillary Clinton

Like I need to explain to you or anyone how he was protesting against his inability to create new threads by bumping tens of defunct threads from years gone by.

The way I see it, it was kind of like the days when he would push the envelope with his racism and personal attacks - he had to know what the ultimate payoff would be, BUT, that's part of his schtick. He knew it was coming sooner or later. Them's the rules.

If you or I were to do the same thing, either here, in the Media Center, or the lounge, we'd get the exact same treatment. Any of us would.

Those rules cannot apply to me! They want me on this forum....they need me on this forum...never mind I just finished watching A Few Good Men and had a Nicholson moment~

__________________The Trump campaign and Black Lives Matter movement are perfect for each other. Both sides filled with easily led and angry nitwits convinced they are victims~

You're thick headed. I told you why he was bumping threads. He had two legitimate reasons for bumping them. First, he was researching penchief posts because he and penchief had gotten into it. And second, since he isn't allowed to start new threads for whatever reason, he was posting new items in relevant old threads. He wasn't bumping threads and saying "bump" or "Peyton Manning!". He was bumping them for a purpose. You and I wouldn't get banned for that.

He only mentioned not being able to start threads when people accused him of randomly bumping threads, so the idea that he was doing it as a protest is kind of crazy. You're making assumptions because you don't know what was going on and because you apparently ignored my explanations. Unfortunately, this is what our mods do too. They don't bother to do investigate what's really going on, they just make assumptions and sometimes it leads them to bad decisions like this.

Why do these bumps bother you so much? No one held a gun to your head and forced you to stick around and keep them going. It makes it seem like your cheerleading for this ban is more about the person than the rule.

I don't like it when blueballs finds old threads in the lounge to bump for nonsensical reasons, either. When it gets to those kind of levels, it's just annoying.

I just did a quick count. Crappy has been banned, what, twelve hours, and the front page alone in DC has 11 threads out of 25 that were bumped by him. And no, not all of them were about penchief. Like I said, it's just his schtick. The only reason you're getting your panties twisted up here is because you happen to agree with everything he posts, which is your choice, which is also fine.

Your issue isn't with me, and you know it. I wasn't the one that banned him, nor did I go running to the mods about anything he was doing. The only time I report posts are the obvious 1 post trolls trying to pimp their websites or sell whatever it is they sell.

You should probably go start Won'tEverGetBannedFromHerePlanet. Power to the people, and all of that.

I don't like it when blueballs finds old threads in the lounge to bump for nonsensical reasons, either. When it gets to those kind of levels, it's just annoying.

I just did a quick count. Crappy has been banned, what, twelve hours, and the front page alone in DC has 11 threads out of 25 that were bumped by him. And no, not all of them were about penchief. Like I said, it's just his schtick. The only reason you're getting your panties twisted up here is because you happen to agree with everything he posts, which is your choice, which is also fine.

Your issue isn't with me, and you know it. I wasn't the one that banned him, nor did I go running to the mods about anything he was doing. The only time I report posts are the obvious 1 post trolls trying to pimp their websites or sell whatever it is they sell.

You should probably go start Won'tEverGetBannedFromHerePlanet. Power to the people, and all of that.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I don't always agree with SHTSPRAYER. The most recent public poll in DC has us on opposite sides.

I just did a quick count and of the 11 threads that were potentially bumped off of the front page, 6 of them haven't been posted on in 48 hours and the rest are older than that. And several of those were most recently active because SHTSPRAYER was posting in them. No harm was done. Like I said in a previous post, most of the DC traffic of late has been generated by SHTSPRAYER. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

Bumping 11 old threads in the Lounge would be a different story since there's more activity there. In this ghost town, it's a time for celebration. When DC picks back up, it might be a problem, but not now.

__________________

“The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they’re not.” - Hillary Clinton

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I don't always agree with SHTSPRAYER. The most recent public poll in DC has us on opposite sides.

I just did a quick count and of the 11 threads that were potentially bumped off of the front page, 6 of them haven't been posted on in 48 hours and the rest are older than that. And several of those were most recently active because SHTSPRAYER was posting in them. No harm was done. Like I said in a previous post, most of the DC traffic of late has been generated by SHTSPRAYER. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

Bumping 11 old threads in the Lounge would be a different story since there's more activity there. In this ghost town, it's a time for celebration. When DC picks back up, it might be a problem, but not now.

I agree with this being uncalled for. However this guy has race issues. I have pointed out how Direckshun bombs the forum with multiple posts on the same subject and should has had his totally worthless ass banned several times. Shitsprayer and I talked one time about race and he commented of a post I stated how blacks started shit with me because I was white. He talked as though he still had problems with similar experiences. He was curious why I didn't hold the same feelings. I told him that those I ran with and myself stood our ground and those who thought we would fold or backup or give ground learned quick that dog don't hunt. I moved past it it clearly has not. I write this off to previous convictions~

__________________The Trump campaign and Black Lives Matter movement are perfect for each other. Both sides filled with easily led and angry nitwits convinced they are victims~

I agree with this being uncalled for. However this guy has race issues. I have pointed out how Direckshun bombs the forum with multiple posts on the same subject and should has had his totally worthless ass banned several times. Shitsprayer and I talked one time about race and he commented of a post I stated how blacks started shit with me because I was white. He talked as though he still had problems with similar experiences. He was curious why I didn't hold the same feelings. I told him that those I ran with and myself stood our ground and those who thought we would fold or backup or give ground learned quick that dog don't hunt. I moved past it it clearly has not. I write this off to previous convictions~

I don't think Direckshun deserves to be banned for his serial thread posting. Without pot stirrers like Direckshun and SHTSPRAYER, we wouldn't have nearly as much to talk about.

__________________

“The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they’re not.” - Hillary Clinton

I don't think Direckshun deserves to be banned for his serial thread posting. Without pot stirrers like Direckshun and SHTSPRAYER, we wouldn't have nearly as much to talk about.

I count one Direckshun thread on the front page of DC. That's too much? At least 10 Mad Crapper threads are there.

__________________
Thanks, Trump for the civics lesson. We are learning so much about impeachment, the 25th Amendment, order of succession, nepotism, separation of powers, 1st Amendment, obstruction of justice, the emoluments clause, Logan Act, conflicts of interest, collusion, sanctions, oligarchs, money laundering and so much more.

Second, Direckshun periodically goes on thread creation binges that rival SHTSPRAYER's bumps in volume. It's kind of surprising to me that you aren't aware of that.

Well I don't hang out here as much as I used too. I'm mostly here for the lawls at this point and the religious threads, maybe poke the gun nuts with a pointed stick every now and again

__________________
Thanks, Trump for the civics lesson. We are learning so much about impeachment, the 25th Amendment, order of succession, nepotism, separation of powers, 1st Amendment, obstruction of justice, the emoluments clause, Logan Act, conflicts of interest, collusion, sanctions, oligarchs, money laundering and so much more.